1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of vending machines, and in particular but not exclusively to a vending machine for food products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Food vending machines allow the vending of food products at the convenience of the user in a self-service environment. A particular example is the vending of snacks and light meals to be eaten cold or to be heated in a nearby microwave oven facility. Most commonly, prior art vending machines comprises a refrigerated display area having a carousel mounted for rotation about a substantially vertical axis, the carousel having a plurality of shelves each divided into compartments. Each compartment contains a food product such as a snack or light meal. In use, the carousel is rotated until the desired product is aligned with an access door, and the door unlocked by a payment mechanism receiving, for example, coins, tokens or a smart card.
The prior art vertical carousel arrangements suffers a number of disadvantages. In particular, food is poorly displayed with only a forward portion of the carousel being visible to the user. Only one customer may operate the vending machine at any one time, to rotate the carousel and view the products on offer. Food products on in particular the uppermost and lowermost shelves of the carousel are difficult to view for most users from a normal standing position, leading to poor sales of products in these areas.
The prior art vending machines are technically complex, having relatively high manufacturing costs and poor reliability. Further, the machines are bulky, often being difficult to fit through a normal doorway, and are therefore awkward to transport and install.
GB-A-2104050 (Ahlstrom) discloses a vending machine having a plurality of drums arranged to rotate about a generally horizontal axis, wherein the drums are provided with radially extending partitions to form a plurality of compartments about a circumference of each drum. The compartments each receive a vendable product, suitably frozen goods such as ice cream. However, the arrangement of this prior art document is mechanically complex and is only suitable for a narrow range of products being of a relatively robust nature. Also, this horizontally arranged prior art example suffers similar problems to the typical vertical carousel arrangement discussed above, namely that only a minor proportion of the products can be viewed at any one position of the carousel or drum.